Improvement in boot and shoe fastenings



PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE H. WARD, OF MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN BOOT AND SHOE FASTENINGS.

Specification forming part `of Letters Patent No. 136;!11. dated February 18, .1873.

To all 'whom tt may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. WARD, of Middletown, in the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Button Boots and Shoes; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description ofthe same, and which said drawing constitutes part of this specitication, and represents, in

Figure l, a side view of the upper portion of a button boot with a part broken away to illustrate my improvement; and in Fig. 2, a transverse section ot' the upper on line a This invention relates to an improvement inv that class of boots and shoes which are secured upon the foot by means of buttons, the object being to make the buttons adjustable, whereby the same shoe will readily tit dil'erent-size ankles, and adjust itself to the movement of the ankle, and thus avoid the breaking of the buttons from the shoe. The invention consists in the arrangement of an elastic material inside the upper to which the buttons are attached` through a slit in the upper, so that the buttons can be drawn forward in the said slit, the elastic yielding for the purpose, as more fully hereinafter described.

A is the upper of an ordinary button-shoe, through which slits a are made corresponding to the position required for the buttons. Inside the upper and between this and the lining I arrange a strip or strips, B, of elastic material, as denoted in solid black, Fig. 2. To

the front edge of this elastic material, through the slits a, thebuttons are attached, as seen in Fig. 2, the other edge ot' the elastic material secured at the heel-seam or at any other desirable point back of the buttons, so as to allow the. elastic material to be extendedthat is, this material must be free forward of y its place ot' attachment to the upper. The other part of the upper which overlaps is con` structed in the usual manner with buttonholes corresponding to the buttons.

Placed upon the foot the-'shoe is buttoned in the usual manner. The elastic, yielding for the purpose, avoids the liability to detach thev buttons in the act of buttoning, and also allows the self-adjustment of the buttons to the size of the ankle, whereby the same shoe will` p Witnesses:

J. H. SHUMWAY, A. J. TLBBITS. 

